Iran's unwavering commitment to the Assad regime in Syria despite its increasingly colossal costs is not only because Syria is Iran's strategic pathway to the Levant, but also, and probably more importantly, because "disloyalty" will send out deeply unsettling signals to Tehran's other mostly non-state allies or proxies and thus undermine its asymmetric security alliance structure in the Middle Ea

Context. Could the velocity spread, increasing with time, in the Galactic disk be explained as a result of gravitational interactions of stars with giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and spiral arms? Do the old open clusters high above the Galactic plane provide clues to this question? Aims. We explore the effects on stellar orbits of scattering by inhomogeneities in the Galactic potential due to GMCs,

In this article we unpack the organizational effects of the valuation practices enacted by nation branding rankings in a contemporary case where the Danish government employed branding-inspired methods. Our main argument is that the use of nation branding was enabled by the Nation Brands Index via its efficient translation of fuzzy political goals into understandable numerical objectives. The Nati

Pierre Bourdieu has been an extraordinarily influential figure in the sociology of music. For over four decades, his concepts have helped to generate both empirical and theoretical interventions in the field of musical study. His impact on the sociology of music taste, in particular, has been profound, his ideas directly informing our understandings of how musical preferences reflect and reproduce

Galectins are β-galactoside-binding lectins, which are present in both the intracellular and extracellular environments of cells. During the last two decades, galectins have gained increasing interest as drug targets in various diseases, such as chronic inflammation (fibrosis) and cancer, in which galectins have been shown to play important, and sometimes rate-limiting, roles. Galectins have e.g.

Laser-induced incandescence (LII), elastic light scattering (ELS) and extinction were used to investigate the early stages of soot formation when seeding metal salts at various concentrations into a premixed ethylene/air flame on a PerkinElmer burner. The investigation contained seven salts, where we in this work mainly focus on two of these salts, potassium chloride (KCl) and iron chloride (FeCl3

Some evidences suggest that obesity impairs the effectiveness of TNF inhibitors. We examined the impact of body mass index (BMI) on the clinical effectiveness of abatacept in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. This is a pooled analysis of 10 prospective cohorts of RA patients. All patients with available BMI were included in this study. The primary endpoint was drug retention of abatacept in the

Preclinical data suggest that chronic stress may cause cellular damage and mitochondrial dysfunction, potentially leading to the release of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) into the bloodstream. Major depressive disorder has been associated with an increased amount of mtDNA in leukocytes from saliva samples and blood; however, no previous studies have measured plasma levels of free-circulating mtDNA in a

• WEEE with value has traditionally been considered by simple cost -benefit analysis or models, while the reality is more complex.• Lighting products demonstrate that value can also arise from moreholistic considerations of value, and is influenced by multiple stakeholders,time considerations, and market conditions.• Mapping value can help incentivise and plan for value in rapidlychanging products

The use of very large instrumentation, usually called Big Science, became an important part of Western science systems after World War II, with nuclear and particle physics at the center. Throughout the Cold War era, however, science policy priorities and objectives gradually shifted and in parallel therewith, new uses of Big Science emerged that were oriented to the study of materials and later a

Background: One of the global targets for non-communicable diseases is to halt, by 2025, the rise in the age standardised adult prevalence of diabetes at its 2010 levels. We aimed to estimate worldwide trends in diabetes, how likely it is for countries to achieve the global target, and how changes in prevalence, together with population growth and ageing, are aff ecting the number of adults with d

Novel treatment modalities are necessary for pancreatic cancer. Immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibition has shown effect in other solid tumors, and could have a place in pancreatic cancer treatment. Most available clinical studies on immune checkpoint inhibitors for pancreatic cancer are not yet completed and are still recruiting patients. Among the completed trials, there have been findin

This study explores the question of whether the Swedish innovation output of the 1970s and 1980s (and the following decades) indicates structural lock-in or renewal. It is motivated by inconsistent explanations in the current literature about the relation between the economic slowdown and subsequent industrial renewal, as well as a lack of research focusing, in this context, on the primary driver

Both abundant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR or ErbB1) and high activity of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway are common and therapeutically targeted in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, activation of another EGFR family member [human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3) (or ErbB3)] may limit the antitumor effects of these drugs. We found that TNBC cell

Multilevel data occurs frequently in many research areas like health services research and epidemiology. A suitable way to analyze such data is through the use of multilevel regression models (MLRM). MLRM incorporate cluster-specific random effects which allow one to partition the total individual variance into between-cluster variation and between-individual variation. Statistically, MLRM account

A new photoreceptor in the Copepoda is described. The organ, previously called Gicklhorn's organ (Elofsson, 1966a), is paired and is usually situated beneath the cuticle of the front. Each member of the pair consists of two cells. From the anterolateral position, two nerves lead to the lateral part of the brain. No connexion with the nauplius eye is found. Each cell of the organ has microvilli, tw

Selection and exploitation of feeding areas by pre-breeding and nonbreeding Greylag Geese A nser anser, as we ll as by families, was studied in a breeding area consisting of four lakes in Scania, southernmost Sweden, in the years 1997-2000. Total production of young in each lake as we ll as the breeding performance of neck collared individuals was established annually, 1985-2000. This breeding pop

Conflicts often lead to expression of emotion to unrelated parties. We study non-instrumental verbal expression in binary ultimatum games, where receivers can comment either privately or to a third-party audience prior to accepting or rejecting the offer. The potential for gossip is sufficient to induce image concerns in senders, resulting in fairer offers in the audience treatment. Consequently,